Four Points Selects Omneon Spectrum HD for Florida’s WTVX

August 15, 2008

Four Points Media Group has deployed the Omneon Spectrum HD media server for WTVX (Channel 34), in West Palm Beach, Fla. The Spectrum system is sited at an unmanned transmitter facility in the Everglades, which is remotely managed from master control facilities in Salt Lake City.

The Spectrum HD media server acts in a redundant configuration to provide ingest and simultaneous play-out of SD and HD content. The system supports four redundant channels of HD MPEG play-out.

“The Spectrum HD system had the functionality we needed, in particular the automatic internal up- and down-conversion that bridges the gap between SD and HD, allowing us to live in both worlds,” said Kipp Greene, chief engineer at Four Points. “But just as important as the functionality is the reliability and robustness of the equipment, the on-time delivery, and the excellent support from Omneon.”

WTVX was CBS-owned and operated until this year, when it was acquired by Four Points Media, a holding company founded by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. Also part of the acquisition were KUTV (Channel 2) in Salt Lake City; WLWC (Channel 28), in Providence, R.I.; and KEYE (Channel 42) in Austin, Texas. The media group is now in the process of implementing a unified Spectrum server platform across all of its stations.